It's taken until mid-February but Bangor have finally picked up some points at home following a resounding 5-0 win over Mossley at Ballykillaire on Saturday.

The steady progress being made since the Dublin debacle against Pembroke Wanderers continued at the weekend and Bangor bossed the game from start to finish.

They may have had the rub of the green and the better of the umpiring decisions but Bangor took full advantage and despatched Mossley in clinical fashion.

The turning point came 15 minutes into the game when Mossley's talented young forward Ryan McRea was sent off. He picked up a cautionary green card for a bad tackle, added a yellow minutes later for dissent and then further verbal abuse towards the umpire secured a red card and an early bath. Having an extra man from so early in the game handed Bangor a huge advantage but they were already in the lead at that stage.

Bangor had forced the early chances - with Simon Hunter going close from a clever Gareth Morton cross - but Mossley did have a couple of penalty corner efforts well saved by John Tormey. The Seasiders took the lead when Hunter beat his man along the right by-line and crossed to Morton. He then fed the ball onto Dave McClune and the midfielder couldn't miss from two feet out.

One-nil to the good, then McRea was sent off and Bangor were in the ascendancy. Mossley worked extremely hard to stay in touch but Bangor always knew they would tire towards the end. And Bangor could also exploit their extra man on the counter attack when Mossley ventured forward.

It was this exact circumstance that led to Bangor's second goal just before half-time. Michael Harte found Morton lurking on the edge of the circle, Hunter managed to just about get on the end of his cross ahead of the goalkeeper and shovel a one-handed pass towards the goal where the hard working Michael Manogue was perfectly placed to double the lead.

With Mossley keen to make full use of the auto pass rule, Bangor were repeatedly caught out for not retreating in time. And shortly before the break Simon Scales paid the penalty for the entire team's indiscipline. While other's got away with a telling off or green card Scales was sin-binned for five minutes either side of the interval.

The second half started slowly with Bangor content to sit a little deep and Mossley working hard to stay in the game. Bangor occasionally brought problems on themselves by giving the ball away and again had to defend a string of penalty corners. In fact, it is a strange statistic from the game that Bangor won 5-0 yet didn't have a penalty corner in the entire match while Mossley were verging on double figures.

It was a sweeping team move than created the third Bangor goal - the strike that ruled out any hope of a Mossley comeback. Dawie Holley - making a welcome return to the first eleven squad after a winter concentrating on coaching - started the move, Manogue's run and clever lay off set up Chris Campbell and he finished  it off with a collector's item; an open side strike high into the net.

Mossely became increasingly bad tempered with their lot and their captain Scott McNeill, son of Bangor coach Harry, was yellow carded for a nasty challenge on Harte. Bangor's midfield maestro sat out the rest of the game with a gash on his hand and could be a doubt for this week's big game with Raphoe.

Down to nine men and looking ragged after so long playing with 10 Mossley were there for the taking in the closing minutes. And it was schoolboy Conor Savage who did all the taking, helping himself to two goals and taking the score to 5-0. Twice he popped up at the right time at the back post to finish past a helpless Mossley goalkeeper. He took both chances with aplomb, rich reward for his steady improvement this season.

This Saturday Raphoe are the visitors to Ballykillaire and while it's a big game for both sides the Donegal men are under more pressure following Bangor's comfortable win last week. If Bangor win it will all but condemn Raphoe to relegation and the Seasiders will be certain of another year in the top flight of Ulster hockey.

 

 

Written by Simon Hunter